Practice Songs Intelligently

Don't only play songs along with a recording. This is very important. A recording gives you all sorts of cues like when to come in, where you are in a song, and where all of the rhythmic subdivisions are. The recording does a lot of your internal musicianship work for you. Don't rely on the recording. A recording is like training wheels.

Instead of playing to a recording, play the whole song just to a metronome. Then, play the whole song without a metronome. Then, trying playing with a live drummer. You will see this is harder than playing to a recording. But, this is how a real-world situation will be. You can't lean on anyone to know where the beat is. You must internalize the beat.